


Nothing at the End of the Lane

by thisbluespirit



Category: Doctor Who (1963), Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Community: allbingo, Community: genprompt_bingo, Double Drabble, Episode: s12e10 The Timeless Children, Ficlet, Gen, Introspection, Loss, Memory Loss, POV Second Person, Spoilers, Vignette
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-07
Updated: 2020-03-07
Packaged: 2021-02-28 17:54:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 200
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23051302
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thisbluespirit/pseuds/thisbluespirit
Summary: You were always the same.  Everything else is a lie.
Comments: 16
Kudos: 31
Collections: Allbingo, Genprompt Bingo Round 17





	Nothing at the End of the Lane

**Author's Note:**

> This double drabble is more me processing some of my feelings about the finale than anything else. I'm not sure it's even what I think as such, just... me trying to process this big a retcon. (Mostly I don't like it much at this particular moment, but that's all I can say, really.)
> 
> Written for genprompt_bingo square "Memory Related" and also for allbingo February challenge "Rose (Dark Crimson) - Mourning."

You were the Doctor long before this. You were always the same.

This didn’t begin in a junkyard; no mild curiosity led to this place. No great spirit of adventure. You were always going here.

There is no random fault in the chameleon circuit. Buried memories resurface and you reshape your TARDIS to fit them. You make it the way it was before.

Do they make a difference, the ones who come and go? A little, perhaps. But you are always you, even if it’s hidden. It’s there, deep down. It leaks out, as it must.

Where you’re going is somewhere you’ve been before. It’s written in your genes. You will always make the same choices in the end. That is how it is, how it’s always been.

Does it really matter?

* * *

This is the way the Time Lords always are. They take away your memories and make you less than you are. They cut you down and close off the rooms of your mind. They leave you stranded in exile, alone. You’re not like the others around you.

No need to talk of serendipity. This isn’t a universe of happy accidents.

Free will is only an illusion after all.


End file.
